Carrot cake

It's my sweetie's birthday this week. I asked what he'd like me to bake for him. "Chocolate chip cookies," he said. "What cake would you like me to bake," I clarified. "Carrot cake," he replied. "One that's moist. And has cream cheese icing." Of course he would have to pick something I've never baked before. #10 - Bake a carrot cake is on my 101 in 1001 list, so I looked up some carrot cake recipes and consulted the Twitterverse before settling on this one from the Canadian Living website. For the cream cheese icing, I used Blokes Who Bake - I'm coming to love that site!

I won't say this was easy. There's got to be a better way to grate carrots - even the food processor had issues. Also, the cooking time took a lot longer than I expected, although I encountered the same problem a few days ago when baking banana loaf, so I'm starting to wonder whether it's something to do with the oven I used to bake in. I was really worried that the cake wasn't cooked right through, and time was ticking away, but it seemed ok in the end. The cream cheese icing mixture was enough to cover all of the top and sides of a 23 cm round cake.

Carrot cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups (240 g) plain flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
• 2 teaspoons (10 g) cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5 g) baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon (4 g) salt
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (175 g) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (175 g) packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup (175 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla essence
• 2 cups (500 g) grated carrots
• 1 cup (250 mL) drained crushed canned pineapple
• 1/2 cup (125 g) chopped walnuts

Method

1. Grease and flour 23 cm (3.5 L) metal cake pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth. Pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in carrots, pineapple and walnuts. Spread in prepared pan.
3. Bake in centre of 180°C oven for 1 hour 30 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack.

Cream cheese icing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Method

1. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy.
2. Slowly mix in the icing sugar and beat until really well combined. Add lemon rind and stir to mix.